I want to skin a pheasant with wings and tail intact (no head) and use it as a decorative display on a wall or table. The skinning process is easy up to the wings and tail. It's here I encounter the problem and I'm wondering if it is possible to do. Any ideas on how to do this, or if it is possible. Right now I've got a body skin with two detached wings and the tail is off. Also, I've boraxed the skin, but how do I treat the wings and tailend (where the tail feathers are attached) that presumably have tissue in them that can rot. Any thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.
Return to Bird Taxidermy Category Menu
How can you have a problem now , you already got past the hard parts ? Cut the head off and just remove the skin from the neck by peeling over the feathers . If you already boraxed you might have a problem . This would have dried the meat onto the skin . You have to remove all the meat from the inside skin and the wings and then borax . Use a razor blade and cut the inside of the wing and remove the meat . If you just useing it for display , remove the bones also , this will insure you get all the meat out . Rick
on the decorative product. Skinning with wings and tail attached is a pretty straight forward process assuming that you used one of the normal skinning techniques (belly incision, back incision etc) If you used another technique you may have some sewing to do. After initial skinning you would "case" the wings and remove all the meat and fat in the feather quills or just remove the bones as well. You will still beed to defatt and degrease the wing skin. Regarding the tail, most who skin with the tail attached leave the tail bone on while skinning to be dealt with later. If you did this you will need to further remove the tail bone, the oil sacks and with a wire wheel or brass brush remove the fat from between the tail feather quills. You will still beed to defat the entire skin as well, to remove the fat from between all the feather quills. Once completed you should wash in soap and dry the feathers. As a last step rub with borax - the skin is now ready to be used in whatever decorative endeavor you choose. Since the borax is also a drying agent, the skin will get stiff if not used relatively soon after rubbing with borax. If the skin drys, you can rehydrate by using a small spray bottle and wet only the skin side of the bird. Good Luck.